Students at school donate to Red Cross

Students at Tonganoxie Elementary School brought in coins, dollars and checks to contribute to the American Red Cross.

Each day that the students contributed, they earned a red, white or blue ribbon. On Friday, the youngsters tied their ribbons to the south fence at the school playground, to spell out USA.

All told, the students, their parents and school staff members contributed $2,079.17 to relief efforts of the Red Cross that have been under way since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

"It just blows me away. We had parents give checks for 20 dollars. We had 10-dollar bills come in. We had dollar bills come in. We had a gallon of pennies come in. We've had kids come and bring their allowance, their pennies that they've been collecting for something else.

Bottenfield said she and other teachers received help from three high school students Chase Nowak, Travis Andrews and Michael Stephenson who volunteered to cut pieces of ribbon for students to tie to the fence. And on Friday, principal Jerry Daskoski distributed American flag pins to every student and staff member.